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Young girl's floral print romper worn by a hidden child

Object | Accession Number: 2008.349.2

Romper worn by Jacqueline Mendels, age 6, when the family went into hiding in 1941 during the German occupation of France. Jacqueline, her older sister, Manuela, age 8, and their parents, Ellen and Frits Mendels, fled German-occupied Paris in 1942. They were French Jewish citizens who had to abandon their home and assume false identities. They found a safe place to live in hiding in the southern French village of Le Got. A son, Franklin, was born during this time. After the war ended in 1944, the family returned to Paris.

Red, floral print, cloth romper trimmed on front and back edges with 2 rows of bric-a-brac and a white ruffle. The top front has a v-neck bib with 1 button hole on each side and a center pocket, trimmed at the top with 2 rows of bric-a-brac and a white ruffle. The bottom has 2 leg holes and cloth reinforcement. The back waist has elastic sewn into the top hem and 2 attached cloth straps, each with 1 white plastic button, that cross over the back to fasten to the front bib.

Dimensions

overall : 19.000 x 17.000 in. (48.26 x 43.18 cm.)

Materials

overall : cloth, plastic, metal

Contributor

Subject:
Jacqueline Birn

Biography

Jacqueline Mendels was born April 23, 1935 in Saint-Mande, a neighborhood in Paris, France. Her mother, Ellen (nee Hess), was born in 1906 in Hamburg, Germany. Her father, Frits, was born in 1905 in Almelo, Netherlands. He ran a specialty food import-export business. Jacqueline had one older sister, Manuela, born August 16, 1933.

When Germany annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938, some people in Paris evacuated the city, expecting the war to come there shortly. The Mendels evacuated to Fontainebleau, but returned to Paris after one week. When France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, the family evacuated Paris again, this time to a hotel in Seine-Port, just outside the city. They returned to Paris in October. In May 1940, during the early days of the invasion of France, the German bombardments often forced the family to don gas masks and seek shelter in the cellar of their apartment building. The family left Paris a third time in June, joining a massive evacuation from the city. The Mendels were taken in by a family in Deux-Sevres, but returned to Paris after the armistice was signed on June 22. Jacqueline and Manuela were able to attend the local public school that September. In July 1941, the government instituted a program of Aryanization. Her father was forced to sell his share of the business to his non-Jewish partner, but he continued to work and would hide in a back room if someone entered the store.

In 1938, Frits had traveled to Hamburg to try to convince his wife’s widowed mother, Sophie Hess, to leave Germany, but she declined. In November, 1941, she was about to be deported from Hamburg, but committed suicide by poison. From then on, Jacqueline’s mother kept poison ready for her whole family. Jacqueline and her sister understood that if the Germans came to round up their family, their mother would give them pills that would make them “die immediately” and they would “never suffer.” In June 1942, French Jews were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David. The following month, 13,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to the Drancy transit camp, where most were deported to Auschwitz. Most of the roundups took place in areas of Paris with a high concentration of foreign Jews, but the Mendels lived in a primarily Catholic, French neighborhood. They were one of only a few Jewish families and the authorities did not come for them.

On July 30, 1942, the family left Paris for the Vichy-controlled southern region of France, telling their daughters that they were going on a vacation, so as not to frighten them. They picked up their backpacks at the train station; they had been brought there by two young men in the French underground. The police did not search the Mendels’ train, as they did many others, but after arriving in Ribérac, her parents were arrested and interrogated by the French authorities. They were not imprisoned, but were ordered to remain within 100km of the regional capital of Périgueux. They settled in the two upstairs rooms of a house, with no electricity or water, in the tiny village of Le Got in Dordogne. They lived there for the next twenty-nine months. Frits exchanged everything they had of value for food, even Jacqueline’s doll clothes. They were the only Jewish refugees in the village.

Circumstances were more dangerous for men, especially Jewish men, as they could be conscripted for forced labor. Consequently, Frits spent most of the time hiding in the dilapidated cellar of a friendly farmer, occasionally performing some work for him in exchange for food. Jacqueline and her sister attended a two-room school in the nearby village of Mazeyrolles. On August 7, 1943, Ellen gave birth to a son they named Franklin, after Franklin Roosevelt. Their situation became more precarious after the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944. But when Paris was liberated, Frits was able to return to check on his business. He was also able to reclaim the family’s apartment, which had been occupied by German soldiers in their absence. In November 1944, the family resumed their life in Paris. They later learned that around twenty close family members had been deported and killed in Sobibor and Auschwitz.

Jacqueline met her American husband, Richard, while he was studying in Paris. They came to the U.S. in 1958, where they married. They have two children and one granddaughter. Jacqueline retired from the U.S. Foreign Service Institute in 2007 and began volunteering at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Record last modified: 2018-10-24 14:07:54
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn37929

Also in Jacqueline Mendels Birn collection

The collection consists of children's clothing, baby books, documents, and photographs relating to the experiences of Ellen and Frits Mendels, and their children, Franklin, Jacqueline, and Manuela, before and during the Holocaust in France when the family lived in hiding.

Collection illustrating the experiences of the Mendels family during the Holocaust in France; collection includes family documents and photographs, as well as baby books kept by donor's parents before, during, and after the war.

Embroidered white smock worn by 2 sisters, Jacqueline, when she was 3, and Manuela, when she was 5, before the family had to go into hiding during the German occupation of France, which began in June 1940. The girls and their parents, Ellen and Frits Mendels, fled German-occupied Paris in 1942. They were French Jewish citizens who had to abandon their home and assume false identities. They found a safe place to live in hiding in the southern French village of Le Got. A son, Franklin, was born during this time. After the war ended in 1944, the family returned to Paris.

Dress worn by 2 sisters, Jacqueline, age 6, and Manuela, age 8, in 1941-42 when the family lived in hiding during the German occupation of France. The dress was made by their maternal grandmother, Sophie Hess, who lived in Hamburg, Germany. She committed suicide during the Holocaust, rather than undergoing forced deportation to the concentration camps.The sisters and their parents, Ellen and Frits Mendels, fled German-occupied Paris in 1942. They were French Jewish citizens who had to abandon their home and assume false identities. They found a safe place to live in hiding in the southern French village of Le Got. A son, Franklin, was born during this time. After the war ended in 1944, the family returned to Paris.

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